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Mot wrote:didn't leave my stuff dirty for long, washed evryting with soft soap as soon as the last drop was in the bottles. been paying for bottles and made sure i cleaned them with soft soap as i drank them (of course i need to get a capper now ) what is a source for starsan, never heard of it before.

If you stop into The Brew Kettle, you can pick up a cheap hand-capper (butterfly style) for about $20. It's what I use, and I've got no complaints about it. I don't believe they carry star-san, but I did notice they sell a powdered sanitizer that's labelled as being "no-rinse". I've never used it, but it might be just as good.

Mot wrote:I,m using a mr beer lbm and the instructions say unscented mild hand soap. So I,m using soft soap to clean my keg andbottles. Is this enough to clean? I use the sanitizer they supply when it comes time to prep my keg and utensil, bottles etc

Don't use hand or dish soap to clean your equipment, leaves a residue and will destroy foam on beer etc. Same thing for washing your beer glasses.... I have used PBW and Oxi Free, haven't really noticed a difference so I mainly use oxi free now as it is cheaper and easier to get. I clean up right after I am finished brewing, transferring, etc. I don't give it time for junk to dry on, if I'm in a hurry I will just rinse with hot water and do a clean later when I have time. And as for sanitizing I only use star san, stuff is great. hope this helps. cheers!

i fill dirty bucket with dish soap and hot water and toss all my utensils in, come back later and clean every thing with oxy or pbw, depending whitch i have at time.also any dish washer safe parts go in dish washer no soap on pot mode with super heated steam after i washed them by hand.

Another user of oxy clean and PBW for cleaning, and Star San for sanitizing.

Have to admit I didn't know there was scented / unscented oxyclean, so no doubt I have been using the scented stuff! I always rinse well and haven't noticed any room deodorant smelling beer! I will look for the "Scent Free" type now though!

I mix up a 5 gallon batch of Star San and use it for months. Something in my water makes it go cloudy as soon as I mix it and so I cannot use cloudiness as an indictator as to when to discard it.

I use pH. Initially it measures about 2.5, they say to discard it when it rises to 3.5. I usually change it every few months away as it is cheap enough, and have never reached the 3.5pH level.